Chapter 23 · The Vault Beneath the War Room

"Give me the file, Evelyn." Cedric caught my wrist before I could shove the stolen folder into my coat.

His grip was hard enough to hurt. Not hard enough to break me.

"Get your hand off me."

"You broke into my vault, cut through two locks, and took the only war order the council never managed to burn." His thumb pressed against my pulse. "You don't get to make demands."

"And you don't get to pretend this is your business."

His eyes dropped to the file tucked against my ribs. Then they came back to my face.

"Anything inside that folder can start a war."

"It already did."

For half a second, neither of us moved.

The vault hummed around us. Copper wires ran across the stone walls, feeding power into the old projection core in the center of the room. The machine had been dead when I entered. Cedric had brought it back with one turn of a brass key.

That was the problem with trusting him. He knew how to open doors I had spent three years trying to break.

He stepped closer. His chest brushed my shoulder, warm through his black uniform.